AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dunbeg: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your motor and the ignition off and call 0333 366 0103. Caught before the motor runs, it's normally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the car is in Dunbeg. Not happened yet? Below, the rest of the page covers the reasons it occurs and the ways to prevent it altogether.
Two fillers, two tanks: AdBlue in a diesel vehicle
Not one liquid but two: that's what many modern diesels near Dunbeg and North Connel carry, with diesel for the engine. AdBlue goes to the exhaust, where it is sprayed into the gas to fresh it, and it lives in a tank of its own.
Each tank has a filler of its own. Many of cars have a single flap for the two, while some move the AdBlue filler to your boot or under the bonnet. Diesel goes in at each filling station visit, week in, week out. Far less often, the AdBlue side gets topped up — normally from a bottle, by a person working out where it goes. The mistake grows in the gap between them.
AdBlue in your diesel tank around Dunbeg: how it occurs
It is hardly ever carelessness. Three things tend to line up.
Haste comes from the warning. Your car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and an empty tank sends the vehicle into limp mode — so the top-up gets done quickly, before work on a drive off Camus Road, or on the way home in the car park at the pub in the village.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new vehicle or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spouted bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler no more than at an AdBlue one. So the pour, once begun, keeps on. It takes seconds, whether in Ganavan or right in the heart of Dunbeg.
Telling the AdBlue filler from the diesel filler
Before you tip anything, whether on a drive in Achaleven or a forecourt in Dunbeg, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- Position can mislead; the cap does not. AdBlue caps tend to be blue or bear the name "AdBlue" — diesel ones normally do not.
- Check the size: the smaller filler neck is, on many motors, the AdBlue one.
- A label inside your fuel flap frequently says which fuel goes where, on plenty of motors. Check for it.
- The handbook says which it lives if your filler isn't next to your diesel cap: your boot, or under the bonnet.
- Collecting a hire or company car, say at the car park outside Connel Ferry? Ask whoever drove the vehicle last before you set off, not when the light comes on.
Keeping AdBlue out of your diesel tank when you top up
For the day the warning comes on — anywhere you are across Argyll and Bute — a routine to use.
- Stop somewhere level, engine off, with time to spare — never rushing on the side of Jane Road.
- Find the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and say the word "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It seems silly. It does the trick.
- Leave your diesel cap on. If both sit under one flap, check your diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle.
- Using the bottle's own spout, pour slowly — and stop when it is full or the bottle is empty.
- Only after that, start the car: close the cap, check again, and make sure your diesel cap was never opened.
Spot at stage two or three that it has already gone into the diesel side? So stop right there. Skip step five altogether.
AdBlue in your diesel tank already, around Dunbeg?
What follows is a short order of things, starting with not starting the engine. Don't switch the ignition on; on many diesels that alone runs the fuel pump. Filling up with diesel will not thin it: rather than mixing, AdBlue drops to the base of your tank, right where the fuel is drawn from.
Ask the staff to help roll the vehicle away from the petrol pump if you're on a forecourt — the BP, the Gleaner or anywhere else. Leave it where it is if you're on your own driveway in Dunbeg.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the motor has already run. On the M8, under 50 miles from Dunbeg, that means the next junction. About how far did it go? Crossing Dunbeg is less a job than a run of over 50 miles towards Glasgow, so say.
When we get there in Dunbeg, what occurs?
We come to your car wherever it has stopped, whether that is outside the local primary school, close to Dunbeg Parish Church or on your own drive. Both the work and the price rest on three answers — which liquid, what amount, and if it's run — so our engineers ask. The price is given over the phone, before any van leaves.
The system is then rinsed thoroughly, after the tank is drained. Much more than with petrol, it counts here: crystals form, certain metals are attacked, and none of that washes away on its own, no matter how long it sits. After the fuel filter has been cleaned — or replaced, where needed — fresh diesel goes in, and then your vehicle is tested. Before we leave, our engineers fire it up and check that it is running properly.
If the engine hasn't run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house at night. Paying is on the day, not upfront, and you receive the documents an insurer asks for: an engineer's report and a VAT invoice. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it is worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
About Dunbeg and where it is
Dunbeg is a small coastal village in Argyll and Bute, situated near the towns of Ganavan and Connel, with Dunollie nearby. Dunbeg sits at a low elevation of around 12 metres, looking out to sea. Dunbeg has a population of approximately 563 people, living in predominantly semi-detached housing. Dunbeg is located some distance from major cities, with Glasgow being the nearest at 61 miles away.
AdBlue drains across Argyll and Bute, Dunbeg included
As a coastal village, Dunbeg has the same vans as surrounding areas — Connel, Dunollie — all the way through PA postcodes and the wider area around them. A postcode starting PA37 1 gets our van to you fastest.
No need to move the vehicle. We drain it where it is — a side street close to Ocean Explorer Centre, a lay-by on the way to Dunollie Wood, a driveway. Tricky to pin down, like the back of clan burrial? Close to a county line? Asking is better than assuming, so phone.
For Dunbeg drivers, the short version
Always, the cap; after that, the pour. If AdBlue has gone in your diesel tank regardless, leave the car off and call 0333 366 0103. Petrol in Diesel empties it where it waits, anywhere across Argyll and Bute.